It's Buffy
by mkcrl120
Summary: Short drabble fic... some people need to be told some stuff.


Fic: It's Buffy.  
  
Author: mkcrl120  
  
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.  
  
Summary: Short drabble fic... Dammit plot bunnies ... leave me alone ... can see what Anya hated about them now ... whenever I hear their scampering little feet, I feel the need to run and hide.  
  
Setting: Sometime during canon ... if you don't remember then it's not my fault ... stop looking at me like that.  
  
Rating: PG probably. Possibly 15 as the language may become more adult.  
  
========================  
  
_Xander's car  
Parked Outside Hyperion Hotel_  
  
"Are you sure you really want to do this?" Xander turned to his passenger and asked.  
  
"They have a right to know." Willow responded.  
  
"We could have just phoned."  
  
Willow raised her eyebrows. Both eyes red, the result of crying for most of the journey. "Would you **just **want a phone call if something had happened to Cordelia?"  
  
Xander's jaw locked as he clamped down on his emotions. He felt he'd done a lot of that recently. "Of course not."  
  
"Neither will Angel."  
  
Sighing, Xander looked to the entrance. "You **sure **I have to go in with you..?"  
  
Willow was nearly in tears, "You don't have to come in, if you don't want to."  
  
Xander smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Nah... not leaving my Will to face them all alone."  
  
Willow returned the smile. "Then shall we?"  
  
"We shall." Xander got out of the drivers seat. Closing the door behind him as he walked around the car to the passenger side. Willow was already out by that time.  
  
He linked arms with her as they walked towards the entrance. Pressing the button on his key before returning it to his pocket, the car behind them beeped twice as it locked.  
  
Xander knocked on the door while Willow stared at him. "What..?"  
  
Willow smiled, he would always be her Xander. "It's a hotel Xander, people normally go inside... you know... then ring the little bell."  
  
Xander stared directly back at her. "They don't use it as a hotel... least I don't think they do. Anyway, it's Angel's place, god knows what they could be up to in there."  
  
"Like what..?"  
  
"Demon killing... or brooding... that's about all I can think of from Angel's point of view anyway." Amd he felt pleased to see the first genuine smile from Willow since... well, since the event.  
  
"Wes and Cordy also work here."  
  
"Great... so we can add incredibly dull research and mindless gossip to the list." Xander paused to think about it for a while. "You know, this could literally be the most boring hotel in LA. All we need to confirm it is for Wes to drink continuous amounts of tea, like Giles does."  
  
Willow smiled reassuringly at him. "Giles's tea had quantities of Scotch in it last night." She informed him as she pushed the doors open and entered the hotel.  
  
"Can't say I blame him..." Xander muttered as he followed her in.  
  
"Angel..?" Willow called out as they got to the reception desk. "Angel..? Cordy..? Wes..?" Seeing no sign, she went to the office, it was also open and empty.  
  
"CORDY..." Xander shouted reaching the bottom of the stairs. "ANGEL???"  
  
Willow looked at him approvingly.  
  
"Hey, don't consider that... whatever you were considering it. I just don't think this is a 'Hey Deadboy, guess what..?' situation."  
  
Willow nodded in understanding.  
  
Xander expanded on his previous comment. "I mean, we're here to give the brooding one more material to brood over. I say we just tell them and leave... before we get caught up in some crazy adventure."  
  
"I doubt that'll happen." Willow commented without emotion.  
  
"Hey, this is us... and it's them... that's like double the crazy adventure likelihood."  
  
"It **is **still us, isn't it?" Willow said ominously.  
  
"Hey... don't be sad... well do... but don't be too sad. Remember your plan... repair then research, you said. I'm sticking with the Willow plan... and if I've got to then you've got no excuse."  
  
Willow smiled, realising that no-one had responded at all, she asked. "Where do you think they are..?"  
  
"We must have missed today's crazy adventure ... they're already out experiencing it. I think we're safe now..."  
  
She smiled and they sat on the chair waiting for the members of Angel Investigations to return.  
  
=====  
  
_An hour later_  
  
Xander was pacing the room. "You know I'm tempted just to leave a note." Then mumbling under his breath, he added. "If it was any other news and I would've told them by phone, email, letter, anything other than coming here."  
  
"We can hardly leave them a note." Willow told him.  
  
"I know... can't see, 'Popped by. You weren't in. PS Buffy's dead.' to be the most welcome post-it they've ever had." Xander said, rubbing his hands across his face. "Sorry... sorry... I'm just... You know..."  
  
Willow was getting anxious. "What if something happened to them? What if they're lying injured somewhere? What if they're trying to reach us and we're not there?"  
  
He quickly strode over to grab her arms. "Will, calm down. If they're trying to reach us, they'll probably call Bu... Dawn's house first. And Tara and Giles and everyone's there, okay?" He held up his cell phone. "And if they need to tell us anything both Dawn and Anya have my number. All we've got to do is wait for their return."  
  
"But what if someone comes in with a demon problem and they aren't back and we have to go save someone from some demons and they get back and we're not here and they don't know we were here and when we get back they've gone again." Willow continued to babble.  
  
Xander drew her into a big hug. "If someone comes in... we'll listen to them... and if it can wait, we'll just take notes for them. But if it can't then we'll **leave **a note for them, telling them exactly where we've gone."  
  
Willow nodded. _'A plan, that's all I needed,' _she realised. _'If I can stick to a plan, then I don't have to actually think about...' _"Where are they?"  
  
"I don't know." Xander replied. "I checked through the messages, but there was nothing to suggest where they'd gone today."  
  
_'Actually,' _He thought to himself, _'There was nothing to suggest they'd even been here today. Five missed phone messages.' _He'd tried to log onto the computer but didn't know the password. He'd contemplated getting Willow to do her hacking thing, _'But I was afraid getting her to do that to our friends, might worry her even more.'_  
  
"We need to tell them." Willow said, "We need to tell lots of people."  
  
"I thought you said..."  
  
"But what if I'm wrong? We don't know yet... remember what we told Dawn?"  
  
Xander sighed, realising he may have been hanging his hopes on an empty possibility. "You said this was different. That it wasn't natural, this time."  
  
"It wasn't." Willow said confidently. "She didn't... there weren't... nothing was broken." She finished, unsure how to word it.  
  
"I remember..." Xander said, "And I remember how badly injured Spike was too. She should have been in a comparable state... or so you and Giles believed."  
  
Willow was silent after that.  
  
"So how long do you think we should wait here?" He asked.  
  
"Until they get back." Willow responded certainly. "We owe them that much."  
  
"What if they're not back today?" He asked, not wishing to worry Willow further, but felt she ought to be aware of the situation.  
  
"Then we stay... it is a hotel afterall."  
  
"I'm not sure about that." Xander looked reluctantly around. "Staying uninvited at Deadboys..? Bit dangerous if you ask me."  
  
"Xander." Willow set the resolve face into action.  
  
Xander seemed to think it over, nodding once to show his agreement, he waited til the resolve face had gone before asking. "You gonna be okay here on your own?"  
  
"You can't leave me here all by..."  
  
"Will." Xander interrupted. "I'm not leaving you here... It's just... something you said earlier. We need to tell someone else."  
  
"Xander we can't... you remember... what if it does work, then how would we explain it? We absolutely cannot tell anyone cos they'll get suspicious and then people might ask what we think we're doing, and then how do we answer that, and the authorities might look into us and decide we're all lying and are obviously mad so then who's going to look after Dawn and wha..."  
  
"Will... the person I intend to tell, knows about this stuff. I think we owe it to her, okay. And visiting hours are quite restrictive."  
  
"Her..? Who else do we owe it... oh."  
  
"She needs to know. I assumed you wouldn't want to visit."  
  
"Hmmmm." Willow stated. "I... I guess she ought to be told. And if it does work out, then she'll understand." She added reluctantly.  
  
"Yes." Xander agreed, opening the door to Angel's office.  
  
"I think you're right. I'll stay here and wait for the others. You go see her."  
  
"Thanks Wills," Xander commented, kissing her on the forehead. "You sure you'll be okay?"  
  
Willow just nodded.  
  
Xander started to rifle through their contact information. Finding what he needed, he walked both himself and Willow out of the office, closing the door behind them. "I'll only be a few hours okay."  
  
Willow smiled and moved over to the chair to sit back. Xander headed out of the building back towards his car.  
  
=====  
  
_Stockton, California. Northern California Women's Facility  
Prison Visiting Room_  
  
Xander sat there twiddling his thumbs. _'Oh God, this was a mistake.' _He tapped the glass in front of him a few times. _'Good quality, not enough to hold a Slayer back though. Shit, I'm in trouble. What am I doing here again... oh yes, I remember now, losing my freaking mind.'  
_  
He looked around at all the other women in the visitor's room. _'Dammit. These are scary chicks... prison videos didn't look like this when I was a teenager.'_  
  
Then he saw her. Walking down the corridor towards him, head facing the guard accompanying her. Her line of sight never leaving the guard.  
  
_'They did kinda look like that though.'_  
  
As they opened the final set of bars, Xander found himself gulping._ 'And that's it, nothing seperating me from her.' _He thought to himself. _'God, I hope she's in a good mood.'_  
  
As Faith was released into the visitors area, Xander notice her eyes flicker towards the door. Or more accurately towards the seat near the door, a small look of confusion on her face. Xander found himself leaning backwards to see the people sitting there. _'Nothing special about that...' _he thought, wondering what she was looking for.  
  
Returning to his original sitting position, Xander watched as Faith queried the guard. Pointing at the seats on the opposite side of the room to him. The guard corrected her and pointed directly to Xander. He was certain her eyes widened just for a split second, before strolling over.  
  
He found himself staring at her, as she stood there. Seemingly unsure as to whether or not it'd be worth sitting down. He offered a grin in response. _'God that was dumb,' _he figured to himself. Wondering just how stupid that smile made him look.  
  
Faith didn't return the smile. But she did sit down and pick up the phone. Xander picked up the one on his side of the glass.  
  
"Xander..?" Faith asked curious as to the reason for him being there.  
  
"Hey Faith..." He offered in terms of response, managing to catch himself from waving. "This takes me back... used to visit my Uncle Rory back wh..."  
  
"Xander." Faith interrupted. "What are y... You my brother now? Cos... well you know."  
  
"Oh yeah... had to have a reason for coming to visit. So I figured brother seemed an acceptable one... talking of which, sorry if you thought your real brother had come down."  
  
Faith simply stared back at him. "Real brother..?"  
  
"Yeah you know... or maybe you don't... well, when you came in you were definitely looking for someone." Xander babbled.  
  
"Fang normally says he's my brother. I thought you might have been him."  
  
"Deadboy, right..." Xander said, a little disappointed. "All the Slayers wait for him."  
  
"And he would have sat in the shaded area..." Faith expanded.  
  
Xander turned to check. "Ahhhh..." He said in understanding.  
  
"So...?" Faith offered, wondering not for the first time why he was there.  
  
Xander leaned forward, reading the number on her shirt. "Forty three double zero nineteen eh? My lucky number... well nineteen is, not the rest of it... as that would be stupid."  
  
Faith gave up. "Yes it woul... Xander, what are you doing here?"  
  
Xander sighed, _'Oddly I was more comfortable making a fool out of myself...'_  
  
He took a deep breath and leaned in to look her in the eyes.  
  
"It's Buffy."  
  
=====  
  
_The End_

========================


End file.
